Definitive guide to New Delhi's Hauz Khas Village

In HKV the creative coexists peaceably with the commercial, and mainstream taste mixes with alternative inclination.

The streets are crumbling and the wires overhead are irreversibly tangled. New Delhi's historic Hauz Khas Village (HKV) may be a bit scruffy at the edges, but there's no funkier spot in the capital to shop, eat and generally enjoy the vibe.

Designer Bina Ramani opened one of the city's first independent fashion boutiques here decades ago on account of its authentic village atmosphere.

By the late 1980s, HKV had a manicured park, more than 40 designer stores and a few restaurants that catered to a foreign clientele.

Owners set up the Creative Arts Village Association, hoping to work together for the improvement of village conditions.

Activity in Hauz Khas hummed along through the 1990s and the Village, with a deer park, water reservoir and crumbling monuments, has been well-loved for its mid-city sense of seclusion.

In the last four years musicians, designers, travelers, foodies, readers of journals and little books, art and poster-collectors, map makers, social activists and the Delhi LGBT community have set up homes and shops here.

“HKV is a throbbing hub where the alternative creative instinct can express itself freely -- there is an ingrained sense of fair play and camaraderie here which is rare in this hugely competitive city," says Arpita Das, owner of Yodakin, a new free press bookstore tucked into the middle lane of the village.

This is most apparent at the Village’s Open Nights, which take place every few months (see Facebook), when narrow alleyways are adorned with lights and streamers (homemade with spray painted white cloth) and it feels as though a chic Diwali mela might be under way.

New Delhi’s usual suspects appear village-hopping: it becomes a time to meet every creatively inclined acquaintance in the city, watch some videos, cool down at a café and listen to music.

Coffee and Wi-Fi: Kunzum

Kunzum's honesty box is a signature of the village's sense of camaraderie.
To sit around on some cushions, and do more serious work, Kunzum has free Wi-Fi and unlimited tea and fresh Coorgi coffee.

The rectangular space is pitched as a travel café, harboring books on India and adventuring abroad, beautiful photography from several people’s journeys and the occasional reading or slide presentation from a traveler’s diary.

And when you exit, there’s a wooden box, the likes of which you’d find on treasure island.

Music with food: The Living Room (TLR)

If you don’t have any accessories, (not even a fake mustache?), worry not, a girl wearing a wreath on her head will come and adorn you with some.

They’re all functional -- garlands, whistles, pom-poms -- so use them to pump up the city's more marginal live bands, DJs and video projectionists that mix their beats and get you heated.

If you need more heat, try the Worcestershire Old Monk rum mixed into a cocktail called a Bloody Indian. Drinks for two Rs 600.

30 Hauz Khas Village; +91 989 9383 899; open 11 a.m.-1 a.m.

Eat: The Grey Garden

Grey Garden's ethic is one of slow food, slow conversation and slow art.
Imagine a little Parisian café made from things found and old. The Grey Garden serves avant-garde thin crust pizzas with toppings such as pear, walnut and rocket lettuce.

Wonder about the little things stuck in the table's glass cases and cool down with cucumber water.

If you feel like the Indian fare, try the exotic steamed fish served with a tamarind rice and a mango chutney or for the old school rice and dal staple.

On alternate Fridays, The Grey Garden hosts a supper club, a themed dinner on a communal dining table with drinks for Rs 1,500 per person. Meal for two Rs 600.

13A Hauz Khas Village; open Monday-Friday 5 p.m.-11pm

Eat: Naivedyam

If you need a dim, cool atmosphere with obliging waiters and an old-fashioned thali, Naivedyam does not disappoint.
It’s dark in here, and the menu reads in part Malayalam, but the hot cup of rasam served with a lentil papad on a palm leaf just as you sit down gives you plenty of time to guess at the translations.

Start with the dahi vada to cool you down, try the erulli rawa dosai (onion rawa dosa) to open your sinuses and end with a hot gulab jamun.

Naivedyam’s coffee is authentic south Indian and the paan afterwards will help digestion, but should you come at dinner time and feel like some nostalgia, they serve Bournvita. Meal for two Rs 400.

Eat: Gunpowder

The trek up to the third floor ends in a simultaneous gasp for breath and a cry of surprise. The deer park and the reservoir hang below your table, and if you’re up there on a full moon night, you’ll hear a few howls too. Best of all, you forget you’re in Delhi.

The bare, laid-back ambiance calls for a beer, which complements the aila fry (mackerel) starter. Some of the jewels in this Kerala/Tamil/Andhra kitchen are the stuffed parottas and the toddy shop meen curry. But they change their simple A4 printed menu according to what’s fresh and local that season, and it is for that reason, that when you look through the window into their kitchen, the head chef, Satish Warrier, is jiving to music and stirring animatedly. Meal for two Rs 600.

History: Deer Park and the reservoir

The reservoir on the eve of a Delhi monsoon.This extensive park, previously farmland, is dotted with deer. Peacocks, guinea pigs and a great variety of birds like the purple sunbird, the rose-ringed parakeet and the rarer barbet -- can be spotted right here in central New Delhi.

The park garlands a great (khas) reservoir of water (hauz), built by Ala-Ud-Din-Khilji in the 13th century, from where the village borrows its name.

Art: Delhi Art Gallery

If you’re interested in the old masters -- Raza, Husain, Tagore, F.N. Souza and Padamsee -- and aren't inclined to question the authenticity of the multi-dimensional and the outlandish, Delhi Art Gallery can be considered a safe place to buy.

Shop: The People’s Project

With its essence in socially-conscious practices, this is a store that is run by the Happy Hands foundation. The People’s Project hosts an eclectic range of tiny things from artisans across India.

Started by a couple of girls from Kamala Nehru College, they collaborate beyond just selling their wares (lamps, paper weights, match boxes, jewelry, bags, curios) and instead host workshops by these artisans who display their process and their skill.

Workshops in various art forms, under the program Capital D, are planned every other weekend. Email medhavi@happhands.in for more information. Product range from Rs 30-4,500.

Shop: Ahana Organic

Ahana Organic is a family-owned farm that grows rice, grains, pulses, herbs, spices and fruits. They also concoct essential oils, pickles, and condiments, free of fertilizers, pesticides and the artificiality that pollutes much of our food today.

Through this, they are committed to sustainable agriculture and the sustainable development of their farmers. Look out for their Karehni Wild Rice (Rs 90).

Shop: Indian Popular Art

Indian Popular Art -- where poster art never went out of style. The young men who own this store insist that they have been here since before time, and that their grandmother is the oldest landlady in the area.

They do not have a website, an email address or a phone number but if you go over there and ask them anything about old posters -- from cinema to pop phrases to architecture to music-- they have the answers.